This invention relates to the art of carbonating beverages and, more particularly, to a portable, hand holdable carbonating apparatus intended for domestic use.
Carbonators for domestic use have been known in the prior art. They provide the homemaker with an inexpensive means of carbonating beverages, such as soft drinks, juices, bottled water and the like.
Typically, such domestic carbonators employ a pressurized carbon dioxide cartridge which has a seal at one end that is pierced to release the gas into a special pressure container for carbonating beverage located in the container. Since the gas within the cartridge may be on the order of 1700 p.s.i., the pressure container used for carbonizing the beverage therein is usually a heavy, thick walled, container capable of withstanding such high pressure.
It would be preferable that such domestic carbonators be employed with inexpensive, relatively thin walled light weight containers. Such containers, for example, include thin walled plastic, two liter and three liter containers constructed of flexible plastic materials. However, such thin walled light weight containers would burst if a CO.sub.2 cartridge is discharged directly into the container. Such containers may withstand pressures up to approximately 250 p.s.i. For a safety factor on the order of 3:1 it would be preferable, then, that the gas entering the container be on the order of 70 p.s.i.
One attempt in the prior art to provide a device for carbonating beverages employing commercially available containers is presented in the L. Dewan, U.S. Pat. No. 2,805,846. Dewan proposes that a CO.sub.2 cartridge be mounted on top of a commercial bottle with a piercing device located within the bottle to pierce the cartridge and direct CO.sub.2 gas into the beverage within the container. A valve in the sense of a rubber stopper is mounted on the top of the bottle and is held in place with a spring mechanism so that as gas tends to exceed the pressure rating of the bottle it will escape so as to not burst the bottle. The bottle and the valving mechanism and the cartridge are surrounded by a two-shell construction, including a bottom shell for receiving a portion of the length of the container and a top shell which overlies the top of the container, the cartridge and the spring mechanism holding the stopper in place. This two-piece outer shell is clamped together and as it is tightened in place it causes the cartridge to be forced downwardly into the piercing device to release the gas into the bottle. The outer shell is constructed of material to withstand the pressure of any gas released by the spring biased stopper. Dewan's device, then, is a cumbersome structure not readily usable in a domestic environment for carbonating beverages.
It is desirable to provide a carbonator for carbonating beverages in light weight containers which does not require that the entire apparatus, including the beverage container, the CO.sub.2 cartridge and a valving mechanism be mounted within an outer protecting shell structure as in Dewan, supra. It would be desirable to provide a means for regulating the pressure of the gas discharged from the CO.sub.2 cartridge into the container having beverage therein to be carbonated.
The E. B. Charpiat, U.S. Pat. No. 2,732,977, discloses a device for carbonating as well as dispensing beverages and which takes the form of a tank provided with compartments, including an ice compartment, a beverage compartment and a pressurized gas supply compartment. Instead of a cartridge, there is provided a tank containing pressurized CO.sub.2 together with a valve mechanism which controls the pressure of gas released. The gas is directed by means of tubing into the beverage compartment for purposes of carbonating the beverage therein. Such a structure, while providing pressure regulation, does not lend itself for use as a portable hand holdable carbonator suitable for domestic usage.
It is, therefore, a primary object of the present invention to provide a hand holdable portable domestic carbonator for carbonating beverages wherein a thin walled container, having beverage to be carbonated, receives carbon dioxide at a controlled pressure substantially less than the pressure limits of the container.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide such a carbonator which does not require the use of an outer shell structure, as in Dewan, supra, which encompasses the carbonator and container.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide such a carbonator which does not require a structure of the nature disclosed in Charpiat, supra.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a portable hand holdable apparatus for use in carbonating beverages and which includes a valve housing that has an inlet section and an outlet section. The inlet section is adapted to be coupled in a fluid tight engagement with a source of pressurized carbon dioxide. The outlet section is adapted to be coupled to a container in fluid tight engagement for discharging carbon dioxide into the container having a beverage therein to be carbonated. A valving means is mounted within the housing intermediate the inlet section and the outlet section. This valving means includes a first valve for use in passing pressurized carbon dioxide received at the inlet section from a source of carbon dioxide. A pressure regulator is located intermediate the first valve and the outlet section and responds to pressure within the outlet section reaching a given pressure level, such as on the order of 70 p.s.i. for blocking further passage of carbon dioxide into the valving means. In this way, the pressure of the carbon dioxide entering the container having beverage therein to be carbonated is regulated at a level substantially below the pressure rating for the container. This, then, permits the use of thin walled containers which have a pressure rating substantially below that of the pressure level within the source of pressurized carbon dioxide.